More Secrets
by inkwheels
Summary: Riley opens up a little more. *completed*
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Intelligence. No copyright infringement is intended.**

**Thank you to everyone that has read my first story - Secrets - and liked what they read. I wish I could hug Riley at the end of this one.  
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Riley heard her phone ring as she was lying in bed. It's late, as usual, but that's when he usually calls.

"And who might this be?" she says jokingly, burying herself under the covers to shield herself from the cool winter chill that lingers in the air just before the heat kicks on.

Gabriel smiles as he takes a bite of pizza. "Just thought I'd call and say thank you for having my back out there today."

"I always have your back, you know that. What are you eating?"

"Pizza," he answered with his mouth full.

"And you failed to inform me that you were ordering some. When did this take place?"

He swallowed it down and chased it with a swig of beer. "I didn't think you'd be interested, you and your soy lattes and fitness routines and all."

"Pizza is a guilty pleasure of mine, I'll have you know."

"Really. Well then, you are more than welcome to come down here and share it with me if you'd like."

"Nah," she said as she turned onto her side in an effort to get comfortable, "I'll take a raincheck. I'm gonna hit the hay in a little bit. Besides, if I eat cheese before bed I…I have nightmares."

Gabriel nearly choked as he laughed at her comment. "Pizza nightmares? Seriously?"

"_Cheese_ nightmares."

"I'll pull off all the cheese for you then."

"As delicious as that sounds, not really, I'll pass."

He swallowed another bite before speaking. "I've never heard of someone having nightmares after eating cheese. Are you messing with me?"

"I'm serious. I have a hard enough time trying to sleep at night so giving myself weird nightmares isn't a good idea."

His laughter died down when he realized she was serious. Hell, most of the time Riley Neal was the pure definition of seriousness so he knew he probably shouldn't have laughed.

He thought for a moment, putting a half-eaten slice back down onto the greasy cardboard box, wiping his hands and mouth on a rough napkin. "Insomnia?" he asked.

He could hear her sigh and get quiet for a moment before breaking the silence. "Not entirely." That was all she gave him.

Running his tongue over his teeth, he picked out the leftover pieces of pizza as he sat back on the couch. "How long's it been since you had a full night's sleep?"

She knew the answer right away but it still surprised her when the number flew from her mouth. "Sixteen years."

He gulped down a swallow and closed his eyes because he knew why. "Riley, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay. My cheese nightmares are something entirely different. The other nightmares…well…they come and go as they please."

He didn't know what to say after that so he chose not to say anything.

"I was asleep when he came into my room. He woke me up by pulling me out of bed by my hair." She thought back to that night, biting on her thumbnail as she watched it unfold in her mind. "He accused me of stealing his stash of weed but I never touched the stuff. I saw what kind of assholes he had over all the time and I didn't want any part of that lifestyle."

Riley sucked in a breath and blew it out slowly. "I remember him dragging me into their bedroom. My mother was lying on the floor, sobbing. He'd beat her pretty badly; wasn't the first time, obviously. He shoved my head into the wall by the dresser and pointed at one of the drawers, claiming that I took it from there. It didn't matter how many times I told him I didn't, he wasn't going to believe me. He spent the next five or so minutes punching me and kicking me, trying to get me to confess. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction."

"Riley." He said her name ever so softly. He didn't want to interrupt her he just wanted her to hear his concern.

"He never sexually assaulted me over those five years. He got off on beating me up." She wiped a stray tear from her eye before it rolled down her cheek. "I got really good at caking my face with make-up to cover the bruises, but sometimes I'd just have to skip school all together."

He could hear her sigh and knew it must still be painful to recount what had happened all those years ago.

"I knew that I was going to put a stop to it and the night he came into my room was…it for him. After he hit me, I pretended I was unconscious. He went downstairs to get a drink and I went into the closet to get one of the guns he had stashed in there. When he came back into the room I raised it up and aimed it at him. He laughed at me and threw his beer bottle at me. I…I dropped the gun and then we were wrestling on the floor for it. I managed to get it and ran out of the room but he tackled me and we both fell down the stairs."

"God, Riley," he said as he covered his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I broke my leg and banged up my knee, which still hurts to this day. He started to come after me and I raised the gun up and emptied it into him. Three bullets to the chest and he fell to the floor in front of me. I remember him looking up at me as he took his last breath." Her voice cracked but she swore she wouldn't cry.

"I know that nothing I can say can make any of that go away. I wish it could, though."

She laughed, snuffing away the sadness. "Maybe cheese nightmares aren't so bad after all."

He laughed with her. "Maybe you're right."

Silence hug in the air for almost a minute.

"I'll be down in a few minutes," she said as she hung up the phone and closed her eyes. Then, for the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to cry.

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END

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**On a side note, I actually suffer from "cheese dreams" whenever I eat any kind of cheese before I go to bed. Doesn't matter if it's straight up cheese or cheese crackers. The result is some VERY bizarre dreams and it happens every time. Try it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Because many have asked for more, here's a little more...**

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After composing herself and splashing her face and eyes with water in hopes of masking the emotion that had consumed her, she went downstairs and knocked lightly on Gabriel's door.

He opened it and stood there for a moment, just taking in the sight of her. He knew just by looking at her she'd been crying but he wouldn't mention it. He knew Riley prided herself on being strong and given all that she had divulged to him, it wouldn't be right.

Stepping aside he swooshed his hand towards the living room. "Come on in. Your pizza awaits."

She smiled at him and walked inside, immediately going to his fridge to get herself a beer.

"You want me to heat it up for you?"

She shook her head. "No. It's always better cold."

The two of them ate in silence for a few minutes – Gabriel sitting on the kitchen counter and Riley leaning against it on the opposite side.

He wasn't sure if he should say something about their phone conversation but he couldn't help but see her in his mind as a fifteen year old girl struggling against a high and drunk scumbag.

"Are you rendering?" she asked, swallowing a mouthful of crust.

"No," he answered quietly. It was the truth and he fought the urge to do so. "I'm just...I'm really sorry that you had to go through all of that. It's hard enough to hear you tell the story so I can only imagine what it was like to live through it."

She shrugged it off. That was always her way of brushing it aside and getting on with life. "It was a long time ago and I'm glad he can't hurt anyone anymore."

"Where is your mother now?"

"Atlanta, last I heard. She stopped speaking to me the day I told her I got accepted into the Police Academy." She picked up another slice and took a bite off the end. "She said I had no business being in law enforcement after killing a man."

"Does she think you shouldn't have killed him?"

She nodded and looked down at the floor before looking back up at him. "He beat her so badly that night that she was in the hospital for a week. But she kept saying that he didn't mean it and that he just gets 'a little angry sometimes when he drinks.' She always had excuses for him." She took a sip of her beer and washed down the pizza. "He was going to kill me that night because for the first time I fought back."

He felt guilty. Guilty that she'd been hurt so many times and here she was putting herself in danger every day to protect him.

"What's the matter?" she asked him, watching his facial expression.

"You've already gotten shot for me, albeit a graze, but I don't know what I'd do if you got seriously hurt."

"You worry too much," she said, dismissing his concern.

"Riley, I'm serious. There are a lot of people out there that would stop at nothing to get a hold of the thing inside my head."

"Well, then they'll have to go through me to try and get it and they're not going to." She wiped her mouth on a napkin and tossed it onto the counter.

"No. No. It's not fair to you." He said as he got off the counter and started to pace. "You didn't even sign up for it."

"You're stuck with me."

He shook his head. "They can assign me someone else."

"Gabriel."

"I'm gonna go in there tomorrow and demand that Lillian get someone else."

"No! Don't you dare!" she said as she stood in front of him, blocking his path.

He grabbed the sleeve of her t-shirt and pulled it up, revealing the scar from the bullet wound. "_That_ is because of me. I can't give you any more scars, Riley. I can't."

She pushed his hand away. "You can't make decisions for me, Gabriel. You said it yourself, people will stop at nothing to get that chip and that means killing you to get it. I won't let that happen."

Gabriel threw his hands in the air. "Why would you risk your life for me, especially when you've had such a hard life? Don't you want a chance to just live and not have to worry about protecting people?"

"No. It's my job."

"Bullshit. It's not just about it being your job."

Riley folded her arms across her chest and her eyes narrowed.

Gabriel paced in front of her, at a loss for what her rationale was. "You can't keep protecting people and putting yourself in harm's way. You don't owe them anything to do such a thing and you certainly don't owe me." He stopped and put his hands on her arms. "Riley, one of these days you might not be so lucky as to walk away." He paused and looked her dead in the eyes. "I don't want that to happen when you're around me or because of me."

"That's not up to you. My reasons for protecting people, including you, are my own. I know what I signed up for when I got into law enforcement and even more so when I started working for the government. It doesn't matter whether I signed up to protect you or I was instructed to protect you, the job has to get done and I am going to do it." She lifted up her t-shirt to reveal a series of scars on her abdomen – a variety of gunshot wounds, knife wounds and surgical scars. "These made me stronger. _These_ prove that I _can_ protect and I'm not that helpless teenager anymore."

"You don't need to prove to anyone that you're strong, especially me."

She pointed at her scars and pulled her shirt back down. "These are about me and nobody else. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone but myself."

He knew he wasn't going to convince her no matter what he said and he realized she was stronger than he originally thought. "Fine." He held up his hands as a sign of a truce.

She heard the tone of his voice soften and sighed heavily before going to the fridge and getting another beer. "I'm sorry," she said as her anger started to melt away. "It's a touchy subject with me and –"

"You don't have to explain. I get it." He looked down at the floor as he also let out a sigh and shook his head. "Hearing about what has happened to you is one thing but to see your scars are another. But I understand. I don't have to like it, and I don't, but I understand. I guess it's my own protective side that comes out when I'm around you."

"You wouldn't feel that way if I was a man, would you?"

He didn't hesitate in answering. "No. I wouldn't."

"Spoken like a true jackass guy," she said with a smile.

"I'll give you that."

She took a long pull of her beer, emptying it and setting the bottle on the counter. "I think we should call it a night. Thanks for the pizza and beer." She started to head for the door.

"Riley?"

She turned and looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Being so badass." A grin spread across his face.

She laughed and shook her head, shutting the door behind her.

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Author's note: I haven't written them as a couple or even attempting to go there because I don't see them at that point. There's sexual tension there, but I think it's far too soon for them to become involved...if they ever do become involved.


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